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Monday, October 7, 2013

Riding the Rollercoaster

Anyone under the misconception that men don't cry have obviously never watched the X Factor. My initial response watching all the tears over the weekend was irritation, until I remembered how I'd cried myself when I'd received a publisher rejection. And cried when I failed to place in a writing competition. Not to mention the tears of frustration trying to overcome brain injury symptoms in order to write...If you care that much about something tears are sometimes inevitable. And you have to care that much to withstand the inevitable lows of your journey as a writer. The highs are fantastic- getting your first full request, the call, your first five star review, the nice email from a reader, watching your rankings rise...But whether you're published or unpublished you will know about the lows - the rejections, not placing in a competition, a horrible review, an annoying comment from an Internet troll that you have to ignore, watching your rankings fall...

When you're hurtling down that roller coaster you just have to grit your teeth, accept you're never going to please all the people all the time and know that as quickly as you're falling you'll be rising again soon.